THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503100033
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Readers want to know. . .
Why aren't you running that list of CD and Money Market rates you used to have? Small investors like me are being affected. I look for it every day.
I'm surprised it took you so long to ask. Other readers have been calling about this for weeks, ever since the Business Weekly chart was converted to a paid-ad listing on Jan. 30. Unfortunately, only two or three lending institutions have been on the new list, compared to as many as 25 before.
But here's good news: Starting Monday, the old CD listing will be back in Business Weekly. All those reader calls and letters convinced our business editors to restore the popular comparison of rates.
What's happened to Robert Stiffler's gardening questions and answers? The column is down to nothing in Sunday's Home & Garden section. There hasn't been much of his regular gardening column lately, either.
Well, last Sunday most of the section's front page was devoted to a Stiffler story on the Peace rose, and to his column of gardening reminders.
But space has indeed been a bloomin' problem in the Home & Garden section. Because of that, Stiffler's popular gardening Q&A has been pruned back.
Blame it on the sharp rise in newsprint prices, a dilemma shared by newspapers everywhere.
Hopefully, our intrepid editors will figure out some way to make more room for his columns. Meanwhile, you can enjoy another Stiffler creation, the annual Weeder's Digest, in today's paper.
I just heard on TV where the newspaper is going to stop running the Virginia Lottery numbers. This really distresses me, because I don't watch TV when the numbers come on. Is it true?
Not to worry. The winning numbers will continue to appear on Page A2 of the Pilot and Ledger.
The Virginia Lottery recently announced that it will no longer run advertisements in newspapers. However, the numbers on A2 are not an ad; they are a service provided by the newspaper.
Now, please, let's not get into a debate over whether it really is a service to encourage buying lottery tickets. And you don't have to remind me that it wasn't a service earlier this month, when we ran the wrong winning Lotto number. . . .
I've been reading your stories about the Pentagon's latest recommendations on closing down bases. I keep seeing the acronym BRAC. What is BRAC and what do the initials stand for?
Aha, you're not reading your newspaper. All that was explained in a neat little story that ran on Feb. 19, along with other articles on base closings.
BRAC is the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. And the initials are a bit of a stretch. The advisory panel should really be DBCAR but, according to our story, that acronym ``doesn't roll trippingly off the tongue.'' Also, dropping the D apparently emphasized its independence from Defense (aka the Pentagon).
I have a question about the personal ads in the Meeting Place. What does ISO mean? I see it almost everywhere, but not in the list of abbreviations.
I thought all DWMs and SBFs and everyone else knew this, but ISO stands for ``in search of.'' But why isn't the abbreviation explained? That's a good question.
I put it to ``Juliet,'' who handles the twice-weekly Meeting Place, and she said she'll give it some consideration.
What's happening with your headlines? Last weekend, you had one that said, ``Norway court clears man who beat wife.'' The story said it was his girlfriend, not his wife.
And on Thursday, a Sports headline said, ``Wooten's strong efforts have woken up Spartans.'' Wake up! Don't your writers know their grammar?
First of all, writers seldom write their own headlines. We have copy editors whose job is to edit stories, then write the headlines and captions and other ``pullout'' type.
So blame the copy editors. But I did that job for years and I have to tell you, it's easy to slip up when you're rushing on deadline after hours of pouring . . . er, poring through stories.
MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB